A recent Los Angeles Times article draws attention to a new amendment to the NYPD Patrol Guide which has expanded the definition of service animals to include those animals that assist people with epilepsy, heart disease, lung disease and other conditions, including mental disorders - in addition to seeing-eye dogs. 

As assistants to people with disabilities, service animals are granted all types of access that normal pets are not…to restaurants, stores, public transportation - access that most pet owners would love to have.  So, does this broader definition of a service animal make it easier for people to fraudulently pass off their pets as service animals?  Of course. 

Now personally, I firmly believe that if you take advantage of laws that were created to help people with disabilities by pretending that your dog is a service animal, you are banking a BOATLOAD of negative karma.  But I know that some people think…what’s the harm in bending the rules a little if my dog is trained and well-behaved??

My husband feels that Oscar should be granted special privileges because he’s a therapy dog (NOTE:  Therapy dogs are not granted ANY special privileges).  Yes, it’s true that he went through pretty extensive training and is very well-behaved and it would be much more convenient for us if we could bring Oscar wherever we wanted - but we don’t NEED to bring him everywhere with us to be able to effectively function in society.

The problem is that taking advantage of the privileges that are granted to service animals, like Adele, undermines the laws that exist to help people with disabilities. 

I think it’s terrific that authorities are acknowledging that service animals extend far beyond traditional service dogs for the blind.  Maybe service animals need some kind of animal version of the handicapped parking permit…something to identify them as legitimate service animals that can only be issued to owners with disabilities.

What do you think? 

I made a personal vow that I was only going to allow myself to write one post about poop per month.  I’ve been pretty much sticking to this rule…check out my April and May poop-related posts.

So, for my June post, I’d like to draw your attention to a few articles I came across about a recent crack down on people who don’t pick up their dogs poop.  Check out these articles from newsday.com and the Daily News with stats on recent two-fold increase on tickets given to New Yorkers for not picking up their dog’s #2.

On top of the increase in the number of tickets, it looks like the fine itself will also be increasing from $100 to $250 in the near future.  Here’s a great article that takes you on a day in the life of a NYC Sanitation Department Canine Task Force agent - that’s a mouthful, but in layman’s terms… it’s the guy who busts you for not picking up your dog’s crap.

Woohoo!!  I only have one question…can I start making citizen’s arrests?

There’s no way that I could read an article called The Problem With Poo and not post about it, right?  At the risk of appearing poo-obsessed, I feel it’s my duty to share some really fascinating facts I just learned about the disposal of your dog’s #2.

So, all along I’ve been thinking that I’m such a good dog owner because I ALWAYS pick up Oscar’s poop.  But a study of Toronto’s public waste revealed it’s made up of a staggering 23-27% pet waste!!  And most of it is in non-biodegradable plastic bags.  Apparently, this is a problem for all major cities and I’m sure New York is no exception.  So, what to do?

Well, the people from BioBag point out that the best way to deal with pet waste is to treat it like human waste…bring it home, separate it from the paper/plastic that was used to pick it up and flush it down the toilet.  Hmm…pretty obvious, but I have to say that this solution has never occurred to me.  Also, it’s probably not going to garner widespread public adoption. 

So BioBag offers another option - they sell 100% biodegradable dog poop bags and they’re not too much more expensive than the non-recyclable version if you buy in bulk.  My recent research on Amazon came up with…

300 BioBags @ $39.99   vs.  120 Bags On Board @ $9.99

Okay, so I’m going to do my part and switch to BioBags…unfortunately I have several months of inventory of the “bad” plastic bags, so maybe it will have to be my 2009 New Year’s resolution.

Anyways, back to the article…my favorite fast fact is that San Francisco is now recycling dog waste into methane gas!!  Those crazy Califonians!  Where do they find the time??  Way to go, SF…the first no-kill city and now you’re even recycling dog poop!

If you want to learn more about the history of dog poop, check out New York’s Poop Scoop Law: Dogs, the Dirt and Due Process, by Michael Brandow, it will be available in stores this August, I can hardly wait!!

Who are these people that don’t pick up their dog’s poop?  Yeah, I said “poop” and I’ll say it again.  Poop. 

Okay, it’s kind of gross, but I have to ask my fellow dog owners…do you find yourselves talking about poop a lot??  Before we had a dog, I can’t remember talking about poop at all.  But now, I don’t think a day goes by that Anya & I don’t have at least a brief exchange regarding Oscar’s poop - frequency, size, consistency.  Is that weird???  I mean we’re just trying to keep tabs on whether he’s sick, going on enough walks and trying to make sure that his diet is agreeing with him.  That’s normal, right?

Anyway, every day there is fresh poop on my block, and on most of the surrounding blocks we walk on.  Anya and I have a long standing joke (since way before we had a dog) about poop we’d see on the sidewalk.  Anya said that she heard somewhere that the owners of guide dogs didn’t have to pick up their dog’s poop.  Now, I’m not sure if this is true, but it makes sense - I certainly wouldn’t expect a blind person to feel around on the groud for it.  So, every time we’d see poop on the sidewalk, we’d just say with a smile, ”Must be a seeing eye dog!” 

However, now that we’re dog owners, we’re taking the poop a little more seriously.  After all, if someone doesn’t pick up their dog’s poop, it’s a reflection on all dog owners. 

I pick up Oscar’s poop for another very simple reason (other than the fact that it’s required by law):  The Golden Rule.  I don’t like to step in poop!  And forensic poop evidence (CSI: Poop Police)  suggests that many of these droppings are definitely too small to be from a guide dog. 

Oh, and while we’re on the stinky subject - there should be a class in poop picking also.  You don’t need to mash the poop into the sidewalk like you’re making some sort of abstract finger painting -  don’t attack the poop - it’s not your enemy.  A delicate cradle & flip movement will usually extract even more stubborn poops from the sidewalk without leaving a trail of sidewalk devastaion in their wake.